Contemporary American ceramic artist Richard Hirsch's Altar bowl with blown glass ladle #5 was assembled in 2007. It's wheel thrown and hand built clay with low fire slips and glazes, black glaze, enamel polychrome paint, raku green patina and hot blown glass. In the book "With Fire: Richard Hirsch, A Life Between Chance and Design" Scott Meyer said; "As Hirsch's work progressed over the years, it would be a mistake to portray these advances as chronological. In fact, items found provocative would be added to the roster of possibility. The vessel might change in character with the deep interior space of a mortar becoming the shallow concavity of a Japanese, stone Tsubi basin or natural geode form. The corresponding implement might change from bulbous pestle to delicate ladle, alluding to the ceremonial cleansing for participants in the Tea Ceremony. In this sense, the proximity of these objects to their implied ceremonial use was similar to that which traditional Raku bowls have to their performed identities, but lacking the specific spiritual overtones that would limit their implications." This four piece sculpture is signed and dated by the artist. It will ship directly from the artist’s studio in Rochester, NY.
(Literature: "With Fire: Richard Hirsch, A Life Between Chance and Design", Scott Meyer (Author), RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press 2012 - "Mortars and Pestles" pgs. 57 - 60. This piece is shown on pg. 60)
Richard Hirsch Brief Bio:
In the field of contemporary ceramic, Rick Hirsch has earned an international reputation. He has achieved this recognition by engaging in numerous diversified professional activities. Through efforts in university teaching, exhibits, writing, lecturing and researching he has risen to worldwide prominence.
In 1975, Hirsch co-authored a book entitled Raku, published by Watson-Guptill. This was the first comprehensive text to address the new innovations developing in the west that were transforming traditional Japanese Raku. Also, in the same year, Hirsch became a founding faculty member of The Program in Artistry at Boston University. Currently, Hirsch is a Professor Emeritus at The School for American Crafts which is a part of Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. His university teaching career now spans well over four decades.
Repeatedly, Hirsch has participated in several milestone exhibitions and publications. Significant shows include; The Evolution of American Art in Craft Media Since 1945; Echoes: Historical References in Contemporary Ceramics; American Ceramics Now; Raku: Origins, Impact and Contemporary Expression; and Convergences: The Presence of the Past in Contemporary American Ceramics.
Frequently his work appears in book and magazine publications, such as; Overseas Contemporary Ceramic Art Classics by Baiming, China; Raku Investigations into Fire by David Jones, England; The History of American Ceramics from 1607 to the Present by Elaine Levin, New York; World Contemporary Ceramics by Baiming, China; and Firing, Philosophies within Contemporary Ceramic Practice by David Jones, England.
Several museums have included his work for their permanent collections. These include; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; The Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC; The High Museum of Art, Atlanta; The Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; The Taipei County Yinko Ceramics Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; and the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, Canada.
In 1984, Hirsch was elected as a permanent member of The International Ceramics Academy, a worldwide organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. A recipient of a William J. Fulbright Research Scholar Award in 2002, Hirsch has also received several Individual Artists Grants. Most recently he was honored by The Rochester Institute of Technology, with the Board of Trustees' Outstanding Scholarship Award. Recently Hirsch collaborated with Dr. Scott Meyer on his biography, the book is entitled With Fire: Richard Hirsch and is published by The Cary Graphic Arts Press at RIT, ISBN-13: 978-1-933360-97-3.
Amid the ever-shifting sands of change and new trends that is prevalent in contemporary ceramics, Richard Hirsch has maintained his steadfast personal aesthetic and continues to make a significant contribution to his field.
